Submitting Manuscripts

All manuscripts must comply with the Air University Style and Author Guide, which is based on the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. If you are interested in publishing a manuscript through AU Press, please read this section carefully. We cannot accept manuscripts that are not submitted according to the procedures described here.

Submitting a Manuscript to the Publication Review Board

To have a manuscript considered by the AU Publication Review Board, please email an electronic copy of the document—preferably as a Microsoft Word attachment— to the Air University Press Director. Also, include a brief note that identifies your potential audience, describes your project’s value to the Air Force, and tells us about your background and expertise.

Submitting an Accepted Manuscript for Publication

If we accept your manuscript for publication, we will ask you to assemble all of your manuscript materials for final submission. All files should be submitted electronically on two CDs—one for text files and one for images. (Original images may be submitted by mail.) Please submit the following items, which are discussed in detail below.

• A complete manuscript, properly formatted according to the requirements of the Air University Style Guide for Writers and Editors (AU-1)
• ​Original images or an individual file for each electronic image
• An AU Press illustrations log in appendix C of AU-1, including copies of permissions for all images not in the public domain
• A photo of you for the “About the Author” page and, if desired, the back cover
• A list of any other publications you may have written
• A list of your social media profiles and platforms
• Written permission to reproduce any copyrighted material
• A distribution list for mailing copies of your publication
• For books, a seed list for an index
• Your date of birth (used by the Library of Congress to prepare cataloging in publication data)

Formatting Your Manuscript

• Submit electronic files of the complete manuscript.
• Do not use templates, embedded styles for the table of contents or index, or similar desktop-publishing features.
• Create a separate file for the front matter (e.g., contents, foreword, preface, etc.), each chapter, and each part of the back matter (e.g., appendixes, glossary/list of abbreviations, bibliography, etc.).
• Do not embed illustrations in the text files. Instead, submit them as separate electronic files (see “Formatting and Submitting Tables and Illustrations,” below), and put a caption indicating where they should be placed in the text. However, you may embed tables in the text files.
• Use a 12-point font and double spacing. Frontmatter, notes, and back matter should be double spaced as well.
• Place notes at the end of each chapter (endnotes), not at the bottom of each page (footnotes). They should be double-spaced and in 12-point font. Use your word processor’s “insert endnote” feature to “embed” the notes to enable automatic renumbering when you add, delete, or move notes. We will not accept manuscripts whose endnotes are not embedded.
• Ensure that your hierarchy of subheadings is consistent (see part 1, Air University Style Guide for Writers and Editors, 1.60). Do not use numbered subheadings.
• Check all quotations against sources and supply complete documentation for endnotes and the bibliography.
• All notes and bibliography entries must be formatted according to this style guide (see part 1 of AU-1, appendixes A and B).
• Provide translations or paraphrases of foreign-language passages in parentheses following the passage. For foreign-language titles in the endnotes or bibliography, put the translations in brackets.

Formatting and Submitting Tables and Illustrations

• Failure to follow these instructions may cause significant delays in the production process. If you have any questions or need assistance, please call Air University Press’s illustrators at commercial 334-953-3041 / DSN 493-3041 or commercial 334-953-3042 / DSN 493-3042.
• When you submit your illustrations (graphs, charts, photos, maps, artwork, etc.), you must submit an AU Press illustrations log in appendix C of AU1 with all relevant information about each image. You can download the log from the instructions for authors on the AU Press website. 
• Submit high-resolution digital images (300 dpi or higher .tiff files) or original images such as photos, maps, or figures (line art). Note that GIF and BMP files are generally not acceptable for printing because of their low resolution.
• If you scan your images, please keep the following principles in mind. To ensure that the file contains enough data to reproduce accurately, please use high-end black-and-white or color-calibrated scanning equipment. Scan all images (color and grayscale) at a resolution of at least  300 pixels per inch, based on an input-to-output (I/O) size ratio of 1 to 1. All enlargements or reductions applied to images should adjust the pixels proportionately. For example, a 3-by-5-inch original photograph printed at 3-by-5 inches (I/O ratio of one to one) should be scanned at 266 to 300 pixels per inch. The same-sized photo printed at 6-by-10 inches (I/O ratio of one to two) should be scanned at 532 to 600 pixels per inch. Save your images either as uncompressed TIFF (tagged image file format), native Photoshop file format (.psd), or EPS (encapsulated postscript) files. JPEG files may be submitted, provided they are saved at the highest-quality setting.
• Images scanned at lower resolutions and then forced or pushed to a higher resolution to meet printing standards become blurry. For example, this happens if you change an image from 150 pixels per inch to 300 pixels per inch in your image-editing program. Instead, you should rescan the image at the target resolution of 300 pixels per inch. Although you can reduce digital images to the desired resolution, you should never increase them to a higher resolution to meet printing standards.
• Do not import images into another document, such as Microsoft Word for submission. Submit images as individual files only.
• Scan all line art as bitmap images with a resolution of between 1,200 and 2,540 pixels per inch, based on an I/O ratio of 1 to 1. Enlargements and reductions are similarly proportional. Save the images either as uncompressed TIFF, native Photoshop file format, or EPS files.
• Please send us a current photo of you for the “About the Author” section and your book’s back cover. More than one pose is permissible. The picture for “About the Author” should be black and white; the back cover should be color. 
• Tables should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc.) and embedded in the text file below their captions. If a credit line is needed, place it below the table.
  
  Table 2. Bomb strikes during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea [place the caption above the table] Reprinted from Air Evaluation Board, Southwest Pacific Area, “Battle of the Bismarck Sea and Development of Masthead Attacks,” 1 July 1945, 47, Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, AL. [place credit line below the table]
  
  See 1.62 of part 1 of AU-1 for information about formatting tables.

• All illustrations—figures, charts, photos, maps, and the like—should be submitted as separate files (one illustration per file), not embedded in the manuscript. Number the illustrations consecutively throughout the document and include the illustration number in the file title (e.g., Figure1.psd). Indicate each illustration’s placement in the text by including its number and caption in the text (e.g., following the paragraph in which you refer to the illustration). For example,
  
  Figure 9. Cutaway view of the B-25G. (Reprinted from North American Aviation, “Train Dispatcher,” Saturday Evening Post, 4 November 1944, 107.)

• If you have a list of illustrations and a list of tables, include each list (titled “Illustrations” and “Tables” [without the quotation marks])on a separate page, following the table of contents. Cite these items in the table of contents as “List of Illustrations” and “List of Tables” (without the quotation marks). 
• Our artists design and create attractive covers for our publications. Although we reserve the right to make final artistic decisions about your book’s cover, our illustrators will be happy to work with you to bring your ideas about the artwork to fruition. Please send us your notes and/or sketches and contact our illustrators at commercial 334-953-3041 / DSN 493-3041 or commercial 334-953-3042 / DSN 493-3042.

Seed List for Index

• Most AU Press books (but not research papers) have an index.
• Because the author knows best what terms a reader would find useful in an index; the author is responsible for providing a “seed list”: an alphabetized list of key terms that an AUPress editor uses to prepare an index. See 1.37 in AU-1 for more guidance on indexing.

Permissions

• When you sign your publishing agreement with us, you guarantee that your work is original. Therefore, if you use copyrighted text, graphics, or pictures, you must obtain written permissions from the rights holders and submit copies to us, along with instructions from the rights holders concerning credit lines and publication limitations. You are also responsible for the payment of any necessary fees to the rights holders. After we begin editing your manuscript, we will contact you as soon as possible if we think you need to obtain additional permissions.
• You do not need to obtain permission if the material you use is in the public domain or if you comply with the doctrine of fair use of copyrighted material. For further information on such material, see part 1 of AU-1, appendix C.
• Copyright law does not set precise boundaries for fair use. Ultimately the author is responsible for not violating copyright law. However, AU Press has adapted the fair use guidelines that the University of Chicago Press offers for the use of its publications, available on the University of Chicago Press’s Website.
• Quotations for the traditional scholarly purposes of criticism, argument, and illustration are of fair use.
• However, reproducing more than 5,000 words from a source, more than 5 percent of a reference, or a complete poem, song, or other literary work is probably not fair use.
• Reproduction of complete graphical units (charts, images, photos, maps, etc.) requires permission. AU Press will not publish a copyrighted graphic unless the author obtains written permission to reproduce it and supplies a copy of the authorization to AU Press.
• If you believe a graphic falls under the doctrine of fair use (e.g., a photograph used to facilitate commentary on techniques of photographic composition or a single graph, table, or chart that includes no pictorial elements and merely presents data), you may ask AU Press to consider an exception to the above policy.
• In the case of material developed for coursework, the office of primary responsibility in the using organization is responsible for reviewing permissions. They should ensure that the use of the copyrighted material adheres to any limitations or requests indicated by the rights-holder (see Air Force Instruction [AFI] 33-360, Publications and Forms Management; and AFI 51-303, Intellectual Property—Patents, Patent-Related Matters, Trademarks and Copyrights.
• Because obtaining permissions can take a long time, begin requesting them early in the process of preparing your manuscript.

Distribution List

• We will provide you 25 copies of your book free of charge. We will send them all to you, or if you submit a list of names and addresses of people or organizations, we will send them on your behalf. However, these provisions are subject to budgetary constraints.

Checklist

• Use the author checklist in appendix B of AU-1 to compile your submission. Please email all materials to the Air University Press Director. If unable to submit digitally, then send by mail to: 

Air University Press Director
Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center
600 Chennault Circle, Building 1405 
Maxwell AFB, Alabama 36112-6010